Culpeper, Virginia, July 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

As the fall semester begins for social work programs across the nation, 11 schools will be implementing customized Path to Licensure programs to teach their social work students about the importance of licensing and regulation to the profession of social work. Faculty from these schools were chosen by ASWB to participate in the association’s Path to Licensure Institute, held in 2017 with five scholars and in 2019 with six scholars.

Institute scholars attended an intensive at ASWB headquarters in Culpeper, Virginia, where they developed a Path to Licensure program specific to their school’s needs. The 2019 scholars will implement the activities in the fall semester, and the 2017 scholars will continue to teach to their Path to Licensure plans. Also during the intensive, scholars selected research topics related to social work regulation. Projects are due in 2020 for the 2017 scholars and in 2022 for the 2019 scholars.

“We started the Path to Licensure program in 2013 and have seen it grow to 284 schools and 462 individuals involved in the program,” said Mary Jo Monahan, ASWB chief executive officer. “The Path to Licensure Institute developed as a way to work with faculty who were committed to teaching about regulation and licensure and interested in doing regulatory research. The scholars’ research projects will become part of the body of research in social work regulation that ASWB is compiling for a social work regulatory research library that will be developed in support of one of the goals of our current strategic framework.”

The 11 schools and scholars participating in the Path to Licensure Institute program:

2017 Institute

• University of South Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota; scholar: Kelly Bass, DSW, CSW-PIP (SD), ACS, MSW Program Director
• University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Green Bay, Wisconsin; scholar: Joan Groessl, MSSW, Ph.D., LICSW, BSW Program Coordinator
• University of St. Thomas / St. Catherine University School of Social Work, St. Paul, Minnesota; scholar: Jane Hurley Johncox, MSW, LICSW, LCSW, Clinical faculty and Director/Coordinator of Student and Career Services
• Touro College Graduate School of Social Work, New York, New York; scholar: Shakira Kennedy, MSW, Ph.D., LMSW, Assistant Professor Coordinator, At-Risk Populations Research and Grant Initiatives
• Washburn University Department of Social Work, Topeka, Kansas; scholar: Carolyn Szafran, MSW, LSCSW, Practicum Coordinator and Instructor

2019 Institute

• Capella University Department of Social Work; scholar: Dianna Bolinskey, DHSc, MSW, ACSW, LCSW (in), LCAC (IN), LICSW (MN), Core faculty
• National Catholic School of Social Service, The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.; scholar: Michaela Zajicek-Farber, MSW, LCSW-C, BCD, Ph.D., Associate Professor
• University of Wisconsin–River Falls Social Work Department; scholar: Tamara Kincaid, LICSW (MN), APSW (WI), QMRP, Associate Professor
• Mansfield University, Mansfield, Pennsylvania; scholar: Tiffany M. E. Welch, DSW, LSW, Chairperson, Department of Social Work, Program Director and Assistant Professor of Social Work
• University of Michigan School of Social Work; scholar: Michelle Woods, MSW, LMSW–Clinical and Macro Practice, Director of Career Services
• Clark Atlanta University; scholar: Darrin E. Wright, Ph.D., MAC, SAP, LMSW, Assistant Professor and Director of Field Education

About ASWB and Path to Licensure

ASWB created its Path to Licensure program in 2013 and held the first Path to Licensure Institute in 2017. The program is designed to help social work educators teach students about professional regulation and its important connection to public protection and social work values and ethics. The goal of the Path to Licensure program is to help social work students transition successfully to professional practice with the understanding of why regulation is an essential component of professional practice. As part of this initiative, the association partnered with the Council on Social Work Education and the National Association of Social Workers Risk Retention Group to develop a Curricular Guide for Licensing and Regulation published in 2018 by CSWE for use by accredited schools of social work.

The Association of Social Work Boards is the nonprofit association of social work regulatory bodies in the United States and Canada. Members include 50 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, the U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, and all 10 Canadian provinces. ASWB’s mission is to provide support and services to the social work regulatory community to advance safe, competent, and ethical practices to strengthen public protection. Learn more at aswb.org.